1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a flash lighting apparatus and a camera system in which the light distribution during flash emission can be controlled in conformity with the spatial distribution state of an object field.
2. Related Background Art
Heretofore, a flash lighting apparatus has been caused to emit light when the illuminance of an object field is deficient during photographing, thereby making up for the illuminance of the object field. The flash of this flash lighting apparatus substantially uniformly irradiates the object field, and the quantity of irradiation of the flash can be adjusted by TTL flash control. Accordingly, if the photographing distances of all objects in the object field are the same, flash photographing can be effected at proper exposure.
However, when in the object field, there are a plurality of objects differing in photographing distance, not all objects can be flash-photographed at proper exposure, but objects near to the camera become over-exposed and objects far from the camera become under-exposed.
In order to solve this problem, there has been proposed a flash lighting apparatus which has a plurality of flash emitting portions and in which the quantities of irradiation of the plurality of flash emitting portions are adjusted independently of one another, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 1-108538.
However, this flash lighting apparatus, which is provided with a plurality of flash emitting portions, is complicated in mechanism, and becomes more complicated in mechanism when the angle of irradiation is changed, and has suffered from a problem that the apparatus becomes bulky. Further, in the boundary portion between a plurality of irradiated areas corresponding to the plurality of flash emitting portions, there arises a problem that lights from the different flash emitting portions overlap one another or the irradiating light does not reach the object.
Also, each light emitting portion must be controlled on the basis of information from a plurality of photometry portions corresponding to the plurality of light emitting portions, and a high voltage is applied to each light emitting portion, and this has led to a problem that the electric circuit becomes complicated and consumed energy becomes enormous and generates high heat.